The oil showed the marchioness stripped of her satins and silks with her natural beauty shining like an exotic flower. In just a gossamer shift with a rope of pearls wound around a swan-like neck, she reclined in a woodland clearing, happy as a nymph.

Sophia scowled. “But that’s precisely the point. Producing a son was my duty, and I won’t be made into a dowdy matron because of it. I need to feel alive and have my heart race for joy. Heaven knows, the Marquess already talks of producing another brat for the nursery.”

Pages 7/8 of the Prologue

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Stop. Look. Listen. My kindergarten teacher taught me that. I remember carefully lining up the tips of my patent-leather shoes exactly at the edge of the curb and stopping–then carefully looking to my right and left, quiet and aware, listening for any clues. Feeling that it was safe to proceed, I’d grasp my classmate’s hand, jump off the curb, and happily venture into unknown territories on the other side of the street.

Now I barely glance from side to side as I hurry on my way.

What happened? Where did that wide-open feeling of awareness go? In the rush of adulthood, it seems to vanish, but what would happen if we simply stopped, looked and listened…even as busy adults?

As a learning addict, I’ve hunted for insights through countless books, seminars, experts, masters and more. Eventually, I realized that my kindergarten teacher had it right from the beginning, long before I started my quest. Who knew that she was so profound?

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Random Quote

Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.

— Attributed to Virginia Woolf – English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories